>From my reading and limited understanding I will answer your questions. Just >don't take it as the gospel.
If the virus is in the bone marrow but not the blood it's referred to as being dormant. Your kitty cannot pass it to other kitties as long as it stays dormant. One book I read did say that many times cats that contract the virus but put it into dormancy will actually be able to extinguish the virus at some point. So it is possible that your kitty could one day be free of it totally. If she is not able to completely extinguish the virus it is definitely possible that it never gets into her blood or white blood cells. The reading made it seem like as long as the virus stays dormant then it should never cause problems. However, it can turn viremic which means it gets into her blood. Sometimes stress and other illnesses can activate the virus. But, whether it causes any problems at that point is a coin toss. I've heard of cats living into their mid to late teens even with the active virus so who knows. It's so hard to predict how each cat's immune system will deal with the virus. You are very lucky that even though she contracted the virus as a kitten that she was able to put it into dormancy. Many kittens that get it will die young. Maybe she will be one of those that will eventually get rid of the virus completely since her immune system was stronger than most kittens. So all that just to say who the heck knows what will happen. It's so unpredictable. You had the IFA test done too didn't you? As far as the interferon goes, I have a friend who believes in it and gives it to her FIV and FeLV kitties every day and has for years. She gets it from a pharmacy that compounds it and puts it into a chicken flavored liquid that she gives to them. I don't know if you need it or not if your cat has put the virus into dormancy but I wouldn't think it would hurt her to take it. I think it is just some kind of super charged immune system booster. Not sure though. sent from my AT&T Smartphone by HTC ----- Reply message ----- From: "sharon Fazio" <[email protected]> Date: Sat, May 28, 2011 8:29 am Subject: [Felvtalk] FeLV in Bone Marrow not in Blood To: <[email protected]> My 1 year kitten was diagnosed with FeLV back in Oct. She has never tested positive with either blood test, only with bone marrow aspiration after she got real sick at 20 weeks of age. As of now she is showing no signs of FeLV, just a low normal blood test. To look at her you would and the way she plays you would not even know she had FeLV. Questions are: Can a cat clear FeLV from the bone marrow? Could FeLV just stay in the bone marrow and never go to her blood? Can a cat expect to live a long life as long as the FeLV never moves from the bone marrow? If she stays well should we think about getting another bone marrow aspiration since the FeLV never been in the blood? Right now she on interferon 1 week on 1 week off. She off all other drug as she doing so well. Vet does not want to take her off the interferon ever. Thank you, Sharon _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
